Animals: Balls

Into the elephant house of the Bronx-Zoo one day last week wandered a newshawk of the New York Sun. He buttonholed Keeper Walter Thuman. Said the newsman to Zooman Thuman: “What most annoys you here?” Zooman Thuman to the newsman: “Balls are what I fear.” Mourned Keeper Thuman: “Footballs, baseballs, tennis balls, golf balls, ping-pong balls, billiard balls, marbles—they’re all bad for elephants. But the worst are those ordinary rubber balls that children bounce. They bounce them near the cages. The elephants gulp them down. Then they get sick.” A hard rubber ball, said he, killed a hippopotamus in the Cincinnati zoo. nearly killed one in New York. It took two weeks of nursing to save Julie, the Bronx tapir, who ate a soft rubber ball. Mr. Thuman knew only one elephant who could digest rubber balls.